_My Lord_, These pieces of paper, which I have put together as well as I could, were writ by my lady to have been sent by _Dorinda_, when on a sudden she rose in rage from her seat, tore first the paper, and then her robes and hair, and indeed nothing has escaped the violence of her passion; nor could my prayers or tears retrieve them, or calm her: ‘tis however chang’d at last to mighty passions of weeping, in which employment I have left her on her repose, being commanded away. I thought it my duty to give your lordship this account, and to send the pieces of paper, that your lordship may guess at the occasion of the sudden storm which ever rises in that fatal quarter; but in putting them in order, I had like to have been surprised by my lady’s father; for my Lord, the Count, having long solicited me for favours, and taking all opportunities of entertaining me, found me alone in my chamber, employ’d in serving your lordship; I had only time to hide the papers, and to get rid of him, having given him an assignation to-night in the garden grove, to give him the hearing to what he says he has to propose to me: pray heaven all things go right to your lordship’s wish this evening, for many ominous things happen’d to-day. Madam, the Countess, had like to have taken a letter writ for your lordship to-day; for the Duchess of ---- coming to make her a visit, came on a sudden with her into my lady’s apartment, and surpris’d her writing in her dressing room, giving her only time to slip the paper into her combbox. The first ceremonies being pass’d, as Madam, the Duchess, uses not much, she fell to commend my lady’s dressing-plate, and taking up the box, and opening it, found the letter, and laughing, cried, ‘Oh, have I found you making love;’ at which my lady, with an infinite confusion, would have retrieved it,--but the Duchess not quitting her hold, cried--’Nay, I am resolved to see in what manner you write to a lover, and whether you have a heart tender or cruel?’ At which she began to read aloud, my lady to blush and change colour a hundred times in a minute: I ready to die with fear; Madam the Countess, in infinite amazement, my lady interrupting every word the Duchess read, by prayers and entreaties, which heightened her curiosity, and being young and airy, regarded not the indecency to which she preferr’d her curiosity, who still laughing, cried she was resolv’d to read it out, and know the constitution of her heart; when my lady, whose wit never fail’d her, cried, ‘I beseech you, madam, let us have so much complaisance for _Melinda_ as to ask her consent in this affair, and then I am pleas’d you should see what love I can make upon occasion:’ I took the hint, and with a real confusion, cried--’I implore you, madam, not to discover my weakness to Madam, the Duchess; I would not for the world--be thought to love so passionately, as your ladyship, in favour of _Alexis_, has made me profess, under the name of _Sylvia_ to _Philander_’.